Board May Settle Wetlands Dispute

Seminole Leaders Can Decide To Relax Their Building Rules Or Delay Action.

August 9, 2001|By Mike Berry, Sentinel Staff Writer

Seminole County commissioners are expected to decide next week whether to act quickly on a controversial proposal to relax building rules around wetlands -- or to put the issue off until next year.

The proposal, from a group of developers, would allow more homes to be packed into smaller areas.

Some environmentalists and residents of rural Seminole are outraged by the idea because they say it would promote sprawl and endanger wetlands. Proponents say current rules are too rigid and step on property rights.

Commissioners were scheduled to act on the matter at their Aug. 28 meeting. But the county's planning and zoning board, which must hear the issue first and make a recommendation, failed to maintain a quorum by the time it came up at the board's meeting last week.

When county commissioners meet Tuesday, the county's planning staff is expected to suggest two options.

The planning board could hold a special meeting and public hearing Sept. 5, with commissioners taking up the matter Sept. 11.

But that would mean a tight time frame because the state's Department of Community Affairs must review the proposal before county commissioners can hold a second and final vote scheduled for December, county planning director Don Fisher said.

Commissioners can make substantial changes in planning rules twice a year, in the fall and spring.

The other option is for commissioners to wait and act on the proposal in the spring. That would mean they probably would hold a public hearing and vote in March or April, Fisher said.

Commissioners may be divided on how to proceed because they were split on whether to address the issue in the first place.

Commissioner Randy Morris, for example, intensely dislikes the proposal to relax development rules and wants to drop it, or at least wait until spring.

"I think we have the potential to do great damage to rural parts of the county," Morris said.

But Commissioner Daryl McLain said critics of the proposal have exaggerated its potential effect. If the county's planning staff is comfortable moving forward with the issue next month, he would not oppose that, he said.

"I'm not interested in doing this to benefit the development community. The interest I have is to benefit individual property owners," McLain said.